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YU Denies claims of leaving Kenya

Taneja said it could take between five to eight years to start making the profits

YU believes the inability by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) to ensure an open and fair play in the telecommunications industry is curtaining the growth of small players.

YU country manager Madhur Taneja says the current high inter-connectivity charge and lack of mobile money inter-connectivity is working against three players in the country.

Taneja's remark come in the face of the release of the report commissioned by Prime Minister Raila Odinga to study the mobile phone market, which said that apart from Safaricom, the other three players have been making losses.

However, Taneja thinks CCK is to blame for this. "It is important that the market opens up," he told KBC.

"CCK should play its role of ensuring there is fair play in the telecommunications market." Taneja wants two things done. First, the interconnectivity rate on voice to continue falling."We are opposed to a freeze on reducing the interconnectivity rate that we agreed on sometime last year," Taneja said.

Secondly, he wants CCK to ensure interconnectivity in the mobile money transfer becomes a reality, where a customer on one network is able to send money to another on a different network.

Speaking in his office on Thursday, the country manager, refuted media claims that the YU brand is planning an exit from the Kenyan market.

"Having invested 400 dollars, we are here to stay. We are committed both to Kenya and Africa," he said. Taneja also hinted at the rejuvenation of the call rate wars saying YU plans to further reduce call rates by up to 50% within the next three weeks.

"For our subscribers, expect even lower rates in times to come," Taneja said. He said the company's bid to focus on subscriber growth is geared towards ensuring they start making profits.

"For a telecommunications company, it takes time before you start making profits, currently we are focusing on growing on increasing our subscribers, he said.

The country manager said it could take between five to eight years to start making the profits.